During previous recessions, you heard stories of people eating dog food. This one is so bad, they’re stealing the dogs. “For the first seven months of 2011, reports of stolen dogs rose 49 percent,” USA Today reports. “About 224 were snatched, compared with 150 in the same period last year.”

You’d think with gas prices being as high as they are, car thieves would be targeting pricey hybrids and electric cars. Nope. “The Cadillac Escalade remains the car most likely to be stolen,” CNN reports. But the thieves might not even want the Escalade itself: “Instead they target other things, like tools, electronics or blinged-out wheels.”

Some scientists have all the fun. “Scientists say they’ve found the missing link. For beer, not humans,” Bloomberg reports. “Now that the yeast’s genomic foundation is identified, researchers say it could be manipulated to create new types of designer beers.”

Here’s another reason for rich Republicans to hate the French. (Remember Freedom Fries?) “After some of France’s richest citizens called on the government to tax them more, French lawmakers have obliged, introducing a 3 percent surcharge on incomes above $720,000,” USA Today reports.

A Subway sandwich shop with “chic lighting, flat-screen TVs, stuffed chairs, pastries and bistro sandwiches”? Maybe. “The decor and expanded menu are part of [a] cafe concept being tested by the nation’s largest sandwich chain that aims to steal a portion of the breakfast market, lure coffee drinkers from its competitors, and get customers to stick around for a while,” MSNBC reports.

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